This invention relates generally to high density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe fusion equipment and more particularly concerns equipment for feeding sticks of pipe into a machine for fusion to the trailing end of a pipeline.
Handling and staging sticks of pipe to be fed into a pipe fusion machine are presently labor intensive, time consuming tasks requiring use of expensive pipe loading, unloading and manipulating equipment and causing extensive downtime of the fusion machine while each stick of pipe is maneuvered into the machine and of the peripheral equipment while the fusion machine is in operation.
Typically, heavy construction equipment, such as telehandlers, backhoe loaders and fork trucks, are used to handle the sticks of pipe. Some pipe stands are available for use in the pipe fusion process, but they hold only one stick of pipe at a time and, despite use of the stand, other jobsite equipment is still required to load and position each and every stick of pipe in the fusion machine. More recently, a pipe storage rack has been combined with a single pipe stand, making it easier to load sticks of pipe onto the stand. It is not, however, an effective tool for manipulating sticks of pipe into a fusion machine. Furthermore, because of the pipe size, terrain contour and pipe loading limitations of this combination, there are many applications in which it is of little use at all.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide a rack type pipe feeder for a pipe fusion machine which can stage multiple sticks of pipe. Another object of this invention is to provide a rack type pipe feeder for a pipe fusion machine which eliminates the need for dedicated heavy equipment to handle each individual stick of pipe. It is also an object of this invention to provide a rack type pipe feeder for a pipe fusion machine which requires heavy equipment only for the purpose of loading bundles of pipe from a truck onto the feeder. Still another object of this invention is to provide a rack type pipe feeder for a pipe fusion machine which is adjustable to accommodate variations in terrain contour. A further object of this invention is to provide a rack type pipe feeder for a pipe fusion machine which is usable with fusion machines of various sizes. Yet another object of this invention is to provide a rack type pipe feeder for a pipe fusion machine which usable with pipes of various sizes. An additional object of this invention is to provide a rack type pipe feeder for a pipe fusion machine which feeds pipe smoothly into a pipe fusion machine. And it is an object of this invention to provide a rack type pipe feeder for a pipe fusion machine which facilitates easy pulling of pipe through the jaws of the fusion machine into alignment for fusion with next stick of pipe.